This is a revisiting of one of my most useful blog posts, based on the criteria of number of times I go back to it! I felt like there were too many exceptions and it was worth looking again to see how safe the rules were and whether I could tweak them. To do this, I have taken the list of the 1000 most popular portuguese nouns I mentioned in that post (published on an extremely useful site called Hackingportuguese but currently only available on the Internet archive site because the original is having technical issues) and I have subjected it to extreme torture in an excel spreadsheet in order to see how many exceptions there were. This work has taken me two days so I hope it will pay off.
My version of the list is available as a spreadsheet here. It is actually modified: I took out a couple of words that I saw that were Brazil-specific and a couple that looked like they were (at least in European Portuguese) only used as adjectives, and replaced them with random nouns from a Memrise deck, to bulk it up to a thousand again.
So I’ve recreated my table (below) in what I hope is a more accurate way. TL;DR: Most of the rules are pretty good, I found a new rule I hadn’t heard of and I decided that nouns ending in e are a wilderness of chaos and despair from which there is no escape. In most cases, more specific rules seem to override more general ones. So for example, “dezena” is masculine because it meets the “all numbers are masculine” rule even though it ends in A. And Avó is feminine because it meets the “Male and Female people” rule even though it ends in an O. I’ll update the Memrise Deck I’ve been working on to reflect this new set of rules tomorrow.
Oh and again, sorry about the colour-scheme, but… well, you know… just trying to harness my cultural stereotypes in a way that makes it easier to follow.
| Rule | Examples | Exceptions |
|---|---|---|
| Dependent: Male and Female animals/people depend on individual’s sex* |
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| Dependent: Ordinal numbers depend what’s being counted, because they are effectively adjectives! |
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| Masculine: Nouns ending in -o (nb, not -ão though) -r -l -z -u |
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| Variable: Nouns ending in -ão |
The textbook says abstract nouns are largely feminine and concrete nouns largely masculine | Slightly unclear and too many exceptions to list here. See the table below this one. |
| Masculine: Names of Lakes, Rivers, Mountains etc |
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| Masculine: Compass points |
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| Masculine: Car brands** & types of wines |
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| Variable: The seasons obey their last letter rules o=masculine, a=feminine |
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| Variable: Week days obey their last letter rules o=masculine, a=feminine |
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| Masculine: Words from greek, usually ending -a: most usually in -ema -grama -eta |
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“Gorjeta” is the only word with these endings that doesn’t match but Priberam says it’s not greek |
| Masculine: Letters |
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| Masculine: Cardinal numbers |
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| Feminine: Most words ending in -a |
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(likely also greek) |
| Feminine: Words ending in -ez |
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| Feminine: Words ending -dade -ie -tude -gem -ice -ã |
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| Feminine: Names of towns & countries |
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Places specifically named after male things:
Places consisting of a male noun + adjective
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| Feminine: Names of the Academic Arts and Science subjects |
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*=Note that some of these change their endings but some – like dirigente, cientista, keep the same ending.
**= Jeremy Clarkson would love this, I’m sure
Nouns ending in -ão
This is a list of all the nouns ending with these two letters (excluding things like “irmão” and “verão” that trigger more specific rules). As you can see, they are largely feminine and largely abstract but with quite a lot of concrete masculine nouns acting as exceptions. Conclusion: the rule is pretty sound but if in doubt, err on the side of feminine.
| Masculine | Feminine |
|---|---|
| In theory, these should all be concrete (things you can see and touch) | In theory these should all be abstract (ideas, emotions) |
| o alcatrão o apresentação o avião o cão o capitão o cartão o chão o cidadão o coração o escaldão o órgão o padrão o pão o patrão |
a acção a actuação a administração a alteração a aplicação a aprovação a associação a atenção a avaliação a canção a classificação a colecção a comissão a competição a composição a comunicação a concepção a conclusão a condição a constituição a construção a criação a decisão a declaração a definição a designação a dimensão a direcção a discussão a disposição a distribuição a divisão a edição a educação a eleição a emoção a estação a evolução a excepção a expansão a explicação a exploração a exportação a exposição a expressão a extensão a federação a formação a função a fundação a geração a gestão a impressão a inflação a informação a instalação a instituição a intenção a interpretação a intervenção a investigação a ligação a manifestação a mão a missão a nação a negociação a obrigação a observação a ocasião a opção a operação a opinião a oposição a organização a orientação a paixão a participação a população a posição a preocupação a pressão a prisão a privatização a produção a profissão a protecção a publicação a questão a razão a reacção a realização a redução a região a relação a religião a representação a resolução a reunião a revisão a revolução a secção a selecção a sensação a sessão a situação a solução a televisão a tradição a transformação a união a utilização a variação a versão a visão a votação |
Appendix 1: Not-so-Easy E
The original version of this post stated that nouns ending in -e followed the same pattern as those ending in -ão so I made up a list in the same format as the -ão list. However, as you can see, contrary to the textbook rule, it’s mixed pretty evenly between abstract and non-abstract on both sides. Conclusion: the rule is bollocks, I’m afraid, and we’ll just have to learn these the hard way.
| Masculine | Feminine |
|---|---|
| In theory, these should all be concrete (things you can see and touch) | In theory these should all be abstract (ideas, emotions) |
| o acidente o ambiente o ataque o barrete o breve o clube o combate o continente o controle o corte o costume o crime o debate o dente o destaque o empate o exame o filme o gabinete o golpe o horizonte o instante o interesse o legume o leite o limite o mestre o monte o nome o nordeste o padre o parque o peixe o príncipe o regime o romance o sangue o telefone o teste o transporte o vale o volume |
a análise a arte a árvore a ave a base a carne a chave a classe a corte a crise a estante a face a fase a fome a fonte a frase a frente a gente a gripe a hipótese a mãe a metade a morte a noite a parede a parte a pele a ponte a posse a rede a saúde a sede a sorte a tarde a torre a vontade |
(NB Corte appears in both sides because it can mean either “The court” or “The cut”, both reasonably common but having differing genders just to be bloody awkward)
Apprendix 2: Mistakes, Mis-Shapes, Misfits
When I’d counted all the words that fit the rules and the exceptions, there was a short list left over of words that met none of the rules. The majority seem to be masculine, apart from fé, lei, ordem and nuvem.
- a fé
- o fim
- o gás
- o jardim
- a lei
- o mês
- a nuvem
- a ordem
- o país
- o pé
- o som
- o tom
Amended 1/2/19 – realised I’d written a “new rule” that was nonsense
I made a bit of an experimental Memrise deck that I hope will help me improve my guess rate of portuguese nouns and their genders. Not sure how usable it is yet but it builds on 
Luso 